Research shows more couples are cohabitating

SALT LAKE CITY — Cohabitation is on the rise.

A Research Center analysis Pew released today found that the number of 30- to 44-year-olds living together as unmarried couples in the U.S. has more than doubled since the mid-1990s — from 3 percent in 1995 to 7 percent in 2010 – and is at an all-time high.

The number of adults ages 19 to 44 who have ever cohabitated, though, is much higher than the number of adults currently cohabitating, the report states — citing that 58 percent of adult women had lived with a partner of the opposite sex in 2009 compared to 33 percent in 1987.

But living together does not necessarily mean a higher income.

"There's a perception that moving in with a partner is likely to result in economic gain, and we're saying that's not true for all people, especially those without college degrees," D'Vera Cohn, a Pew senior writer for the report, told USA Today. Though cohabitating adults with a college-education do make slightly more than their married counterparts. But less-educated, non-married couples who live together make significantly less than their married equivalents.

For college-educated adults, the median adjusted household income of non-married couples living together is $106,400 and is $101,160 married adults. For adults without a college education, the average adjusted household income of cohabiters is $46,450 and is $56,800 for less-educated married couples.

Researchers gave a number of reasons why this may be the case.

-Married persons on average do make more than cohabitating couples, but college-educated cohabiters are more likely to have two-person incomes than college-educated married couples (78 percent versus 67 percent in 2009).

-For low-educated adults, cohabiters are less likely to have two-income households than married couples (55 percent verse 59 percent).

-For college-educated adults, 81 percent of married couples lived with children in the household compared to 33 percent of non-married couples living together.

-Two-thirds of less-educated cohabiters live with at least one child in the home.

"Cohabiters with degrees tend to be double-income couples without kids," Pew economist Richard Fry told the USA TODAY. "It's no secret they tend to do well."